Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-08-30
SAVED HIS BACON.
poxHxIrY DKrHaoxxs AND pou sLY
pAxNs sRAKsPKARx.
Re says Works Aseribea to the Immortal
Bard We're Written By Lord Bacon and
90 Does Professor Davidson.

NOAts nO NAtAttO 40 Wkttttn ny II IO-
fessor Thomas Davidson, well.known
scholar, philosopher, and critic, whose
opinion as TO Mr.. Donnelly's work can
not fail to carry great weight Mr..
Davidson has recently paid Mr.. Don
nelly o visit at his home at Hastings,
MINI, examined the manuscript OF his
forthcoming work, the "Great Cryptic
gram" had the main features of the
cipher explained to him, and obtained
permission toreport.
Before examining Mr.. Donnelly's
work, Mr.. Davidson was an entire skep-
tic in regard TO the Bacon theory; but
he now admits that he is very much
shaken in his belief that the plays were
written by Shakespeare, and declares
that il they had come down to us with
out any authors name attached they
would have been unhesitatingly attri-
buted 10 Bacon. He says he reached
this conviction altogether apart from
the cipher.
The article gives brief summary of
the results reached in Mr.. Donnelly's
book, which is to be published about
the first OF December. The book is
divided into two parts, on Argument
and Demonstration. The former col
lects, arranges, and sums up all the ar
guments that have been put forward in
the last thirty years in favor OF the
Baconian theory, and adds large num-
Der to them.
The author first endeavors to show
that the education and character of
William Shakespeare were such that it
is even ridiculous to imagine that he
could have written plays which are dis
titled from all the wisdom and learning
of the world. He shows that his edu-
cation must have been extremely mea
gre, while that OF the author of the
plays was broad and deep. He empha-
sizes the fact that we have no record of
any study on the part of Shakespeare.
His account Of Shakspeare's character
will certainly be surprise to most
readers. He shows him to have been
stepped in almost every kind of vice
and immortality, usurer, an oppressor
of the poor, drunkard, systematic
liar and forger of pedigrees, diving in
the prime of life from the results of a
three days drunken spree.
The author next shows that we have
no record that Shakespeare ever owned
library or even a book, and that not q
single scrap Of manuscript of his has
come down to us, not even letter to
any of the numerous men with whom
he is known to have been acquainted !;
nay, more, that there is extant no letter
addressed to him except one asking for
loan of money. There is nothing to
show that Shakespeare was not very
nearly illiterate. Mr.. Donnelly next
proves very clearly that while the
author Of the plays was an accomplished
lawyer, there is nothing to show that
Shakespeare ever opened law book or
was inside a lawyers Office except on
usurious business.
Having demonstrated to his own sat-
isfaction that the author of the plays
was not Shakespeare, Mr.. Donnelly
next proceeds to prove that he was Ba-
con. After adducing evidence to show
that Bacon was a poet, and the author
of the plays a profound and learned
philosopher, he treats of the geogra-
ply of the plays, and here he brings
out some most tell-tale facts. While
Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shaks-
peare was born, is never mentioned in
the plays, st. Adams, the home of
Bacon, is mentioned twenty-three
times. He next shows that the
politics and the religion of the
writer of the plays are identical
with Bacon's politics and religion, and
that what Bacon declared to be his
great liie-purpose is fully exempted IN
the plays. A chapter is devoted to Ba-
cons reasons for concealment, and
here come out some startling facts.
II appears not only that Bacon wrote
works which he never publicly acknow-
lodged, but that he is addressed by one
of his friends as the greatest wit in
England, though not known as such by
his own name. Among the reasons for
concealment, Mr.. Donnelly puts the
political tendency of some of the plays,
which was TO encourage treason.
The first part OF the work closes with
a long list of parallelisms between
Bacon's acknowledged works and the
Shakspearean plays-identical express
sions, metaphors, opinions, quotations,
studies, errors, use of unusual words,
character, style. These parallelisms
will occupy over seventy closely-printed
pages. The result of the whole argu-
ment, according to Mr.. David
son, is to leave upon the mind
a strong impression that if Ba-
con was not the sole author of
the plays, he had, at least, principal
hand in them, supplying the scholar
ship, the art, and the philosophy. After
the argument making the authorship
of Bacon probable comes the demon
stration, that is the cipher narrative,
which has already aroused so much
interest in the public. The article in
the World tells how Mr.. Donnelly
came to look for cipher and the labo-
rious process by which he found it, as
he believes. The story is full of inte-
rest.
As TO the cipher itself, MIR. Davidson
does not claim TO be in position to
entirely satisfy the public, not having
received from Mr. Donnelly the ulti-
mate formula OF it. He does, however,
express his strong conviction that Mr..
Donnelly is neither fraud nor a
"crank." To clear away any feeling
OF this sort on the part of the public,
he gives a brief account OF Mr.. Don
nelly's career and description OF his
simple home-life in Minnesota. Some
notion OF the labor gone through by
Mr.. Dcnnelly may be obtained from
the statement that the slips of paper on
which he has made his calculations Che
writes fine hand and on both sides OF
the slip), when tied up in bundle, can
with difficulty be lifted from the floor
by strong man using one hand.
Mr.. Davidson quotes from letter,
in which Mr.. Donnelly affirms, in thC
most positive and unequivocal way,
that everything is conducted according
70 fixed and inyariable roles OF micro
seopic accuracy. II such rules exist
the cipher is reality, and the author
ahip Of the plays settled. And great
deal more is true, for the cipher nara.
tive contains whole history of Sheks.
peare and bis relation to the plays and
Of the time in which he lived. The
whole thing reads like novel written
in vigorous Elizabethan English. Here